Haitian Leader Fears ‘Social Explosion’ Unless U.S. Sends Financial Aid

The military president of Haiti, Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril, warns that his country is verging on a “social explosion” that could shock the hemisphere unless the United States and other nations urgently provide money to help stabilize his tottering government.

In an interview, the general, who two months ago survived a coup and an army mutiny, echoed a chorus of despairing voices among politicians, diplomats and business leaders--here and in the United States--who say that the economy and living conditions in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere have plumbed dangerous new depths.

A powerful Florida congressman, Dante B. Fascell, the Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, even raised the specter of possible U.S. military intervention unless the United States takes urgent action.

In a letter to Secretary of State James A. Baker III, made public here last week, Fascell warned that the situation “could explode at any time and create circumstances that might necessitate U.S. military intervention to protect American lives.”

Avril, interviewed in the small, unadorned presidential office in the national palace in Port-au-Prince, declared, “We are on the verge of a social explosion.”

The April coup and military rebellion “was like a political hurricane that swept through the country,” he said, calling his government’s survival “miraculous.”

“I expected the financial aid would come to take the situation in hand (after the coup),” he complained, “(but) we did not receive the aid that we expected. This is why we still have instability.”

The 51-year-old provisional president, describing himself as frustrated, outlined a Catch-22 situation in which Washington demands progress toward democratic elections before resuming aid programs that were canceled when Election Day massacres aborted Haiti’s last attempt at democracy in November, 1987. Yet with an empty treasury, he said, he cannot even pay the country’s new, independent Electoral Council, much less hire the staff and provide the facilities necessary to plan and conduct new elections.

Perhaps more important, he said, is money to disperse and reorganize the military, still restive after the April mutiny, and to relieve rapidly deteriorating social and economic conditions. Random killings and armed robberies have increased. At least 65 soldiers who deserted with their weapons and ammunition at the time of the mutiny are still at large, according to Avril, and the thugs of the feared Tontons Macoutes have still not been disarmed.

“I thought that our partners would realize that instability in Haiti can provoke instability on the American continent,” Avril said.

4 Tasks Before Elections

The general, brought to power last September in a coup by army enlisted men who ousted the dictatorial Gen. Henri Namphy, insisted that he has demonstrated his own commitment to “irreversible democracy” by naming a permanent, independent Electoral Council to plan elections. But he listed four “indispensable things” that must be accomplished before elections can be held.

“First, we must strengthen public security so that people can vote safely,” he said. Haitians have been wary of voting since 1987, when more than 36 people were killed at the polls by armed hoodlums and soldiers.

Second, he said, “we must reorganize the armed forces, transform the institution into an organization able to live in a democratic society.”

The third condition, he said, is to improve the living conditions of the soldiers and “take away the anger” that still lingers among troops who were reassigned to primitive facilities in the country’s nine provinces after the mutiny. Two of the country’s three army battalions were disbanded after the April rebellion.

“We had to disperse them very fast,” he said, “and the facilities were not in place to receive them: the dormitories, toilets, beds and mess halls. You can’t say the soldiers feel comfortable in their new posts. I cannot guarantee the security of the electoral process before putting these men in comfortable facilities.”

Finally, he said, Haiti must restore the prestige of the presidency.

“Now we live at a time when people think anyone can be president of the country,” he said. “Every week there is a rumor of another coup d’etat.”

Continuing instability in the military is Haiti’s most vexing problem, according to a number of civic and political leaders interviewed here last week.

“Avril does not control anything except his tank battalion in the Presidential Guard,” said Jean-Claude Roy, head of the Union of Haitian Constitutionalists.

“There is a lack of authority,” he said, “a lack of funds and no administration.”

Roy also complained that Avril has become aloof and isolated. He said a coalition of political leaders asked Avril two weeks ago to form an interim civilian-military government as a last-ditch attempt to restore confidence and work through the crisis, but the general did not respond to their proposal.

“I don’t believe a government of coalition could function,” said Avril, who had earlier described the presidential seat as “too hot” for any civilian to occupy under present conditions. He recalled that it was the paralysis of a coalition government in 1957 that led to the brief civil war from which the notorious Duvalier dictatorship emerged.

“We don’t want to repeat this experience,” said Avril, who rose to a position of influence under the regime of Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier, who is in exile in France after fleeing the country in February, 1986, with a substantial portion of the national treasury.

Avril confessed that his government is so poor that it is even having trouble continuing its legal efforts to recover the more than $100 million Duvalier is believed to have taken.

“It has already cost more than $4 million,” he said of a civil lawsuit before the French courts.

Asked about the deteriorating public security situation in the capital city, Avril said it was caused in part at least by young soldiers who he believes were “infiltrated” into the army by political figures of the Duvalier dictatorship for the purpose of creating trouble. Another source of insecurity are the hoodlums of the Tontons Macoutes, the feared private security force of the Duvaliers.

Blames Army Units

Although Avril pledged to disarm the Tontons Macoutes last September, he said he had failed because the army units he sent out to do the job were in league with the hoodlums.

He said the purge of the military, which is believed to have provoked the April coup and mutiny, has resolved the problem of army involvement in drug smuggling.

Asked if he ever felt like quitting his job as provisional president, Avril sighed deeply and said: “Yes, I’ve never wanted to be where I am now. But there is the welfare of the nation to consider. The only reason I am here is to realize the elections as fast as possible, but to hold them in a way that keeps a president in power as the constitution requires.”